The Birmingham education meeting has gone off with enthu- siasm,
but though the League have avoided difficulties by keep- ing back their definitions of " compulsion," and leaving the ques- tion of Bible or no Bible, and unsectarian religion or none at all, to the local authorities of each school, instead of making any formal law for the society, it was obvious that there was a good deal of real difference of opinion ;'andon the question of gratuitous teaching, —of free schools or schools supported partly by the payment of the parents,—some of the warmest supporters of the League
.expressed their divergence of view. The chief leaders of the movement expressed their strong wish for a very gradual intro- duction of local schools, so as not to interfere with good existing voluntary schools. But the Bill which the League will, we suppose, produce in Parliament, must put this almost beyond their own control, at least, if it authorizes, as seems to be intended, any local authority dissatisfied with the existing schools to rate the district for a free school, which must, of course, absorb or extinguish all schools now existing which are not free.
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